''Ceratophyllus gallinae'', known as the hen flea in Europe or the European chicken flea elsewhere, is an ectoparasite of birds. This

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

was first described by the German botanist and entomologist

Franz von Paula Schrank Franz von Paula Schrank (21 August 1747, in Vornbach – 22 December 1835) was a German priest, botanist and entomologist. He was ordained as a priest in Vienna in 1784, gaining his doctorate in theology two years later. In 1786 he was named ch ...

in 1803.

Taxonomy

''Ceratophyllus gallinae'' was first described as ''Pulex gallinae'' by

in 1803 in the third volume of his ''Fauna Boica''. It was eventually moved to the genus '' Ceratophyllus'', which was described in 1832 by John Curtis, in his '' British Entomology''. In this genus, ''C. gallinae'' is a member of the nominate subgenus, ''Ceratophyllus''.

Distribution

These fleas are estimated to occupy a range of .

Description

The adult ''Ceratophyllus gallinae'' is some long, laterally flattened, and brown. It has a pair of simple eyes, a proboscis for sucking blood, and a characteristic four to six bristles on the femur of the hind leg. The basal segments of the legs do not bear spines.

Hosts

''Ceratophyllus gallinae'' has a broad host range, being associated with several species of birds with dry cavity or semi-cavity nests, mostly constructed in bushes and trees. It commonly attacks

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

, and can bite humans and other mammals. Another bird flea, '' C. garei'', is associated with the often wet, ground-built nests of ducks, waders and other water birds. A third common bird flea, found on many hosts, is the

moorhen flea The moorhen flea (''Dasypsyllus gallinulae'') is a flea originating from South America. It is now globally widespread. It is a large flea, easily identified because the male has two heavy horn-like spines on one of the genital flaps, and the fema ...

, and this, in contrast to the other two species, hitches a ride on the bird itself rather than living almost exclusively in its nest, and thus becomes widely dispersed. A further species with multiple bird hosts is '' C. borealis'', found in the nests of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

s and cliff-nesting sea birds. ''C. borealis'' has been known to hybridise with ''C. gallinae''. ''Ceratophyllus gallinae'' is most prevalent in birds with nests in nest-holes and crevices. Infestations of nests in nest-holes and crevices are also more intense, meaning that there are more wintering ''C. gallinae'' in those nests. There are reasons to believe that the original host of ''C. gallinae'' was a tit, but the flea is now present, via domestic poultry, on numerous islands where there are no representatives of the tit family. The tit family does provide the optimal reproductive conditions for ''C. gallinae'', suggesting that it is the main host of this species. This flea has often been recorded from squirrels' dreys, and squirrel fleas have been found in birds' nests. When a domestic cat catches a bird, it often plays with it, and as the bird cools, any fleas it carries are likely to transfer to the warm-blooded cat. There they can feed, but whether they can survive for some time and breed on the cat is unclear.

Ecology

Although many species of flea require a blood meal before they can copulate, that is not the case with ''Ceratophyllus gallinae''. As with other fleas, the life cycle consists of eggs, the larval stages, a pupal stage and an adult stage. The larvae have chewing jaws and it is only the adult fleas that are capable of biting the host. Under optimal conditions of temperature and humidity, adults can emerge from the cocoon in 23 days. How many generations there are in the year depends on how many broods their host bird rears. The fleas usually undergo metamorphosis and overwinter as pre-emergent adults. These are fully formed within the cocoon and emerge when certain stimuli occur; suitable stimuli are vibration, heat, or increased levels of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

. These fleas generally come into contact with their host by jumping. The jumping is found to be initiated when the intensity of light is reduced. The host is infected during the spring, when it is foraging on the ground. Fleas like ''C. gallinae'' that are found in nests often develop a defined breeding season, which coincides with that of their host. Associated with this is their ability to survive away from the host. ''C. gallinae'' has often been collected far away from its host or the host's nest, under flakes of bark, in cracks or among leaves, where it fasts for an indeterminate period. The largest number of ''C. gallinae'' reported from a single bird's nest was 5,754 fleas, from the nest of a

coal tit The coal tit or cole tit, (''Periparus ater''), is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa. The b ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5063801 Ceratophyllidae Ectoparasites Parasites of birds Insects described in 1803 Insects of Europe